Comments on: The Brilliance of Jack Zduriencik

By: On Big Name Free Agents | SoDo Mojo | A Seattle Mariners Blog

On Big Name Free Agents | SoDo Mojo | A Seattle Mariners Blog — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:04:19 +0000

[...] The first big issue, as it is with most things, is the money. Now, we aren’t the Florida Marlins or the Texas Rangers – we have some money to spend – but we aren’t exactly rolling in dough either. We are limited as to what we can spend, and we have to be wise with our budget if we want to turn this team into a contender. Putting large amounts of your money towards one, big name, generally very good player, isn’t always the best allocation of resources. For further explanation as to why that is, I advise you to take a look at one of Taylor’s recent articles, here. [...]

By: Greg

Greg — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:28:28 +0000

I realize this article is about Jack Z, but for all the things one can say about Pat Gillick, good and bad, one thing we know is that he liked relatively even talent distribution. Unfortunately, with teams’ growing awareness of WAR, I don’t think the M’s will be able to just stack their roster with above-average WAR players like they did from about 01-03. Not unless they draft well and make a bunch of shrewd trades.

By: Jon @ Pro Ball NW

Jon @ Pro Ball NW — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 06:15:31 +0000

I agree that teams can get in trouble by signing the “big name” free agents, but it’s far to early to tell if Zduriencik will always take a Moneyball approach. Last offseason there was no money, so he was forced to go bargain hunting. This offseason there will be a few more dollars, but still not a ton. It will take a few offseasons to really figure out what Z’s approach is with regards to the high profile FAs.